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Allowing for more movement and physical play now helps them concentrate better later.

Just because a child can decode letters doesn't mean it's the best activity for them in an early childhood program. Research shows that there are more developmentally important things for them to be spending their time on. They need to be physical, to play in the sand, to work in the kitchen, to eat a meal nicely at the table, and to be given the space to ask great questions.

Once your child is enrolled in the early childhood program, you have a direct path through to the grade school and high school. CWS has EC programs at two campuses: our main campus in Rogers Park, and the brand new EC Center in Lincoln Square. Contact Jennifer Zielinski at 773-828-8468 with questions or schedule a tour.

Kids need to play. Play is their real work.

The children engage in playful activities both indoors and outdoors and experience the wonder of the changing climate. In play, children develop the capacity for creative thinking, problem solving, and social skills through their imaginative interactions and in teacher-directed activities. The structured and supported use of play in the Early Childhood program lays a strong foundation for future academic success. The children listen to fairy and folk tales, they watch puppet plays and participate in dramatic play all of which strengthen their power of memory, comprehension, and imagination. The stories, songs and nursery rhymes told in class cultivate in the children a love for the wonders and joyful world of language. Participating in counting games and rhythmic activities as well as in the daily activities of bread baking, cooking, and table setting build the foundational experience for learning mathematics, sequencing, and number skills. Learning about the physical world through large and small motor work and imitative play prepares the child for studying the sciences. All of these learning activities are held in daily and seasonal rhythms that connect the children to the world around them and instill a sense of gratitude and reverence.

It's not about what young children learn. It's how they learn that prepares them to succeed in grade school.

"The task of the kindergarten teacher is to adapt the practical activities of daily life so that they are suitable for the child's imitation through play. The activities of children in the kindergarten must be derived from life itself rather than being 'thought out' by the intellectualized culture of adults. In the kindergarten, the most important thing is to give children the opportunity to directly imitate life itself."